


Hope

by eerian_sadow



Series: Avalon [84]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Family, Friendship, Gen, Hope, Mentions of Character Death, Mentions of canon character death, Search and Rescue
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-11-07
Updated: 2008-11-07
Packaged: 2018-09-20 00:30:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9467393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eerian_sadow/pseuds/eerian_sadow
Summary: After the events of TF:TM, the Autobots are digging out of the rubble on Earth.





	

**Author's Note:**

> for [](http://sister-dear.livejournal.com/profile)[sister_dear](http://sister-dear.livejournal.com/), who wanted some minibot fic. I really tried for Windcharger, but I just didn’t have enough time to do the homework I needed to really get his voice down. Maybe next time, love. Also, I’m not sure Gears is Gears enough, but I like this the way it stands right now. and in case you missed it, this is Avalonverse fic.

They had known the body count would be high before they had started digging through the rubble, but even Gears had a hard time believing how bad it really was. If they were lucky, only fifty percent of their numbers had been killed.

If they were really lucky, he and Bumblebee would find another of the minibots alive in the rubble.

“Any luck?” Bumblebee asked him, handing over an energon ration.

“Any luck?” of course, meant “Have you found anyone else alive?” Bumblebee was trying to be optimistic, though his slumped posture and drawn facial features gave away the truth.

“No,” Gears replied taking the cube. “Did you really think there would be?”

He didn’t; they hadn’t even found any of the full-size bots in the ruins of Autobot City after the first day of “clean-up”.

“No,” the yellow bot replied, sounding tired. “But I was really hoping there would be…someone. Anyone. We lost so many…”

Gears didn’t know if Bumblebee’s vocalizer had glitched with grief or if the other minibot just didn’t want to talk anymore, though he could understand either reaction. They had lost many of the Autobot forces—and they had lost the best of them.

Even the survivors—especially Jazz—walked around like ghosts of themselves.

The red and blue reconnaissance officer drank his ration quickly and turned back to the work. He didn’t want to talk—not that he ever did, but he really didn’t want to now. Bumblebee took the hint and set to work beside him in silence.

He didn’t know how long they worked for—he hadn’t really been paying attention to his chronometer—when they found Cliffjumper. The red minibot was buried under a section of collapsed wall and pieces of a Decepticon he couldn’t identify.

Gears was alternately relieved to know what had happened to at least one other minibot and full of disappointment that it was Cliffjumper and not one of the others. He had _hated_ Cliffjumper and now he wouldn’t even be able to tell the short tempered mech that.

“We’re never going to be able to move this wall,” Gears said.

“I have to agree with that,” Bumblebee said, looking—if it was possible—even more sparkbroken. “I’ll see if one of the Dinobots is close enough to help lift it. They’ll understand.”

He hated the Dinobots too, but he agreed with the yellow minibot. The only group more tightly knit group among the Autobots—that wasn’t a gestalt team—than the minibots was the Dinobots. “Fine.”

He stared at Cliffjumper’s body when Bee ran off, finally allowing his grief to take over. With a start, he realized that the other minibot was still as red as he had ever been. “Oh, Primus! He’s been alive under there for days!”

Gears turned toward Bumblebee’s retreating form and shouted. “He’s alive! Get a medic!”

As he turned back to his fellow minibot, he was pretty sure it was the first time he’d felt even a little hopeful since Megatron ripped that damned circuit board out of his chest. He moved over to Cliffjumper’s side and took one of the red mech’s hands, squeezing it tightly.

“Don’t you dare die on us now, you glitched up piece of slag.”

“I love you too, Gears.” Cliffjumper’s words were so soft—and a bit garbled—that Gears almost didn’t hear them.

“I really hate you,” Gears told him. “And I’ve never been happier to see anyone in my whole existence.”

He was smiling— _smiling!_ —when Bumblebee returned with Swoop and Sludge.  



End file.
